Anchored in San Blas
Anastasia
Phil May and Andrea Twigg
Sat 14 Jan 2012 17:16
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9:35.77N 78:46.55W 1122 miles
covered
The trip from St Lucia to San Blas was a
"baptism of fire" for most of the World Arc yachts. I think we were
all expecting a gentle trade-wind cruise to a tropical paradise.
However part of the gentle cruise involved gale force winds and big, confused
seas. For the non-sailors out there, gale force winds are not really a
problem for an ocean-going yacht, you just handle that by reducing your
sail area. It is the wind/current/tide combination making up the
waves that can cause problems if these are all going in different
directions.
For us there was one thirty mile stretch where the
wind and current caused sets of waves at right angles to each other. The
worst for us was when we were on the crest of one wave and got hit sideways by
another, spinning us through 90 degrees and "gybing" the mainsail, which
was a shock. This is not particularly serious if you are
prepared, but it gets everyone worrying what might come next.
Much worse for some people is that the continual
throwing off course puts immense stress on the autopilot and several out there
have failed, which means those crews are having to hand steer continually.
That must be really tiring/harrowing for them. The good news is that
everyone was on the radio net this morning and all are coping and in good
spirits, considering.
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